4.3. Using independent keyboards with XFree

Once you install the backstreet ruby kernel and start it with dumbcon=n, you get n +1 independent consoles ( 1VGA + n DUMB). In case you have enough keyboards connected to your PC, each of this consoles is associated with a given keyboard. This enables you to start multiple X servers on each of the consoles using for input the keyboard associated with the corresponding console, hence you get multiple independent X servers with independent keyboards, which in turn makes it possible one single PC to be used by several local X users at the same time.

To start X on a given console(using a given independent keyboard) you pass it the argument "vt[N]", where N is a number from a given tty range.

Under backstreet ruby each console is represented by 8 tty's :

Note

  • for the new Prefered Bus ID XFree Server you have to also specify the desired graphic card

    with parameter:

    -prefbusid x:x:x

    where x:x:x is the Bus ID of the desired graphic card,

    • for AGP cards something similar to

      -prefbusid 1:0:0

    • for PCI cards something similar to

      -prefbusid 0:x:0

      x is normally the IRQ number

  • in the following explanation I will not use this option,

    if you use the Preferd Bus ID X server just append "-prefbusid x:x:x" with the correct Bus ID of the card you want to start right before the last argument "vt[x]"

so if you have 3 video cards, 3 keyboards, and you have started backstreet ruby kernel with dumbcon=2, with the following commands you can start 3 independent X servers for 3 simultaneous users:

For 1st X server with the 1st keyboard:

$ startx -- /usr/X11R6/bin/X0 :0 -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4[for your 1st video card] vt7

For 2nd X server with the 2nd keyboard:

$ startx -- /usr/X11R6/bin/X1 :1 -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4[for your 2nd video card] vt8

For 3rd X server with the 3rd keyboard:

$ startx -- /usr/X11R6/bin/X2 :2 -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4[for your 3rd video card] vt16

for the 1st X server you can skip the " -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config-4[for your 1st video card]" argument, in this case the default configuration file "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4" will be used.

Note

  • for SuSE users

    the XFree configuration files are normally /etc/X11/XF86Config

  • the same applies for RedHat users

    the XFree configuration files are normally /etc/X11/XF86Config

You can also setup display manager to start the independent X servers, once everything is properly configured.But don't rush to setup your display manager before the configuration is finished, because this could give you serious problems. When you are ready with the required configurations, you'll reach the section on configuring the display manager.